Skip to main content
Last weekend, a fire that Portland police said originated in a neighboring shed destroyed a car and carport outside of City Councilor Candace Avalos’s East Portland home. It also damaged the side of her house, forcing her to vacate the home.
Police and fire officials have said there is no evidence the fire was set deliberately or was meant to target Avalos—because investigators found “no evidence of an accelerant or incendiary device” and the fire did not start on Avalos’ property.
But in a Thursday night blog post, Avalos cast doubt on police’s preliminary statements, and drew a connection between the fire and high-profile acts of political violence in recent years.
“We still don’t know yet if the fire was targeted, or even if it was set on purpose,” Avalos wrote Thursday night. “Whatever the cause, this didn’t happen in a vacuum. In our current national context, it’s hard not to connect this moment to everything happening around us—the threats, the division, the way public service sometimes puts a target on your back."
She wrote that “public officials are being targeted simply for showing up and doing their jobs.” She noted the assassination of former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, and how someone intentionally lit the governor’s mansion on fire in Pennsylvania, forcing Gov. Josh Shapiro and his family to flee.
Though Avalos did not take direct aim at the Portland Police Bureau’s and Portland Fire & Rescue’s investigations, she appeared to question the prudence of their preliminary announcement that they did not believe the fire targeted Avalos.
“Investigators believe it started in a nearby storage shed and have said they don’t think it was intentional, even as their investigation continues,” Avalos wrote, pointing to the fact that police released surveillance camera footage of a man walking in the parking lot of Avalos’ condominium complex and asked the public for help identifying him. (Police said the man was not a suspect, but that they wanted to know if he witnessed or knew anything about the fire.)
Avalos told WW in a statement that she’s concerned police may be jumping the gun on the cause of the blaze.
“I want to make it clear that I do not know, nor am I assuming, that the fire that destroyed my car and damaged my home was politically motivated or targeted at me,” Avalos tells WW. “What I do know is that there is evidence to suggest multiple possibilities, and I am concerned that police leadership may be jumping to conclusions before the investigation is complete.”
Avalos said that during a briefing this morning with police, “it was made clear that there is still a great deal of information being investigated, and no conclusions can yet be drawn.” She tells WW she’s told deputy city administrator of public safety Bob Cozzie that “my expectation is for the bureau to do everything in its power to demonstrate to the community that they are taking both the national and local context seriously and that they will refrain from speculation until all facts are known.”
Part of the “great deal of information being investigated,” Avalos says, is an email received by her office just days before the fire that read ”hope the entire state burns and your house is the first one to go.” Avalos wrote in her blog that the email demonstrates “how quickly words can turn into threats, and threats can turn into harm. It’s impossible not to feel the weight of it all.”
Bureau spokesman Mike Benner says police are “aware of Councilor Avalos’ recent blog post and want to express our empathy for what she and her neighbors have experienced,” acknowledging that what she’s gone through is “deeply traumatic.” However, Benner says, the bureau stands “by the information that has already been publicly released” and declined to share any further details of the investigation.
Investigators from the fire and police bureaus continue to “work tirelessly” on the case, he added.
Avalos is a staunch progressive and has been a frequent critic of the Portland Police Bureau—both before and after she took office.
That position has landed at least one former City Council member in the crosshairs of police. In 2021, then-City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty was falsely implicated in a hit-and-run after two police officers leaked an incident report in which the victim mistakenly named Hardesty as the suspect. Hardesty later sued the two officers and the police union and accepted a $680,000 settlement.
The situation also echoes frustrations expressed by former City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez after a fire scorched a family car sitting outside of his home in early 2024. Police deemed the car fire suspicious, and an anonymous person took credit for the arson online. Shortly before leaving office, Gonzalez filed a legal notice threatening to sue the city for not sufficiently responding to threats against him prior to the blaze.
A GoFundMe set up by Avalos’ friends raised $14,000 in the 36 hours following the fire. As the Portland Mercury reported this week, the legality of an elected official accepting such funds is murky. Avalos’ office has not said whether she will accept the funds, and the City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on the advice it has provided her office.
Following the fire, the city agreed to provide Avalos with personal security.
